Abstract
Climate change objectives of mitigation and adaptation are being mainstreamed into many policies and strategies around the world. In Europe, this has included the Rural Development Programme, which aims to tackle multiple social, economic and environmental objectives in rural areas, and the integration of climate change objectives adds another strand of complexity to the decision making process. When formulating policies determining the likely effectiveness of any particular measure can be challenging, especially with respect to the spatial and temporal variability of greenhouse gas emissions. This is a challenge faced by all countries and regions around the world. This study uses Europe as an example to explore this issue. It highlights the variability in emissions from land use operations that may be encountered under different conditions and time horizons and considers this in the context of policy formulation. The Optimal Strategies for Climate change Action in Rural Areas software has been adapted to derive net greenhouse gas emissions for rural development operations for all regions in Europe. Operations have been classified into five categories based on their benefit/burden over different time horizons. The analysis shows that it is important to understand the time period over which benefits or burdens are realised and determine how this fits with policy instruments, such as land management agreements and the permanency of actions. It also shows that in some regions an operation can have benefits, but in other regions it has burdens; thus, location can be critical. Finally, in the context of developing operations to meet multiple social, economic and environmental objectives, it is important to acknowledge that seeking options that only reduce emissions may not always be practical or possible. In some instances, we may have to accept an increase in emissions in order to meet other objectives. It is important that we evaluate the net greenhouse gas emissions of all operations, not just those aimed at climate change mitigation. We can then select those with the least burden in the process of developing optimal solutions to meet multiple objectives.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AERU (2013) Optimal design of climate change policies through the EU’s rural development policy. Final Report for project 071201/2011/609681/SER/CLIMA.A.2. Prepared by the Agriculture and Environment Research Unit (AERU), University Hertfordshire, UK. DG Climate Action, European Commission, Brussels
AERU (2014) Optimal Strategies for Climate change Action in Rural areas (OSCAR). Software website: http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/aeru/oscar/. Cited 10 Dec 2014
Arneth A, Brown C, Rounsevell MDA (2014) Global models of human decision-making for land-based mitigation and adaptation assessment. Nat Clim Chang 4:550–557
Bell MJ, Worrall F (2009) Estimating a region’s soil organic carbon baseline: the undervalued role of land management. Geoderma 152:74–84
Berkhout F, Bouwer L, Bayer J, Bouzid M, Cabeza M, Hanger S, Hof A, Hunter P, Meller L, Patt A, Pfluger B, Rayner T, Reichardt K, van Teeffelen A (2013) European responses to climate change: deep emissions reductions and mainstreaming of mitigation and adaptation. RESPONSES project policy brief. Institute for environmental studies (IvM), vU. University Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Bradley RI, Milne R, Bell J, Lilly A, Jordan C, Higgins A (2005) A soil carbon and land use database for the United Kingdom. Soil Use Manag 21:363–369
Cannell MGR, Milne R, Hargreaves KJ, Brown TAW, Cruickshank MM, Bradley RI, Spencer T, Hope D, Billet MF, Adger WN, Subak S (1999) National inventories of terrestrial carbon sources and sinks: the UK experience. Clim Chang 42:505–530
Dawson JJC, Smith P (2007) Carbon losses from soil and its consequences for land-use management. Sci Total Environ 382:165–190
Dilling L, Lemos MC (2011) Creating usable science: opportunities and constraints for climate knowledge use and their implications for science policy. Glob Environ Chang 21(2):680–689
Dobbie KE, Smith KA (2001) The effects of temperature, water-filled pore space and land use on N2O emissions from an imperfectly drained gleysol. Eur J Soil Sci 52:667–673
Dobbie KE, Smith KA (2003) Nitrous oxide emission factors for agricultural soils in Great Britain: the impact of soil water-filled pore space and other controlling variables. Glob Chang Biol 9:204–218
Dobbie KE, McTaggart IP, Smith KE (1999) Nitrous oxide emissions from intensive agricultural systems: variations between crops and seasons, key driving variables and mean emission factors. J Geophys Res 104:26891–26899
Donnellan T, Hanrahan K, Breen JP (2014) Development and application of economic and environmental models of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture: some difficult choices for policy makers. In: Kalogeras N, Mattas K, van Dijk G, Baourakis G (eds) Zopounidis C. Springer International Publishing, Agricultural Cooperative Management and Policy, pp 243–263
EC (2009) The role of European agriculture in climate change mitigation. European Commission (EC) Staff Working Document, European Commission, Brussels, 23 July
EC (2010) Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Communication from the European Commission (EC), Brussels, 3.3.2010, COM(2010) 2020
EC (2013a) Examples of how to mainstream climate action and the potential for doing so – EAFRD – European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 2014–2020. European Commission (EC), Climate Action. ISBN 978-92-79-30694-5
EC (2013b) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. An EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change. European Commission (EC), COM(2013) 216 final, Brussels, 16.4.2013
EEA (2013) Corine Land Cover 2006 raster data. Version 17 (12/2013) - Raster data on land cover for the CLC2006 inventory. European Environment Agency (EEA). http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/corine-land-cover-2006-raster-3. Cited 1 Dec 2014
EU (2013) Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005. Off J Eur Union L 347/487, 20.12.2013
Eurostat (2011) Food: from farm to fork statistics. Eurostat pocketbook, 2011th edn. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg
Falloon P, Powlson D, Smith P (2004) Managing field margins for biodiversity and carbon sequestration: a Great Britain case study. Soil Use Manag 20:240–247
Freibauer A (2003) Regionalised inventory of biogenic greenhouse gas emissions from European agriculture. Eur J Agron 19:135–160
Friedrich R, Freibauer A, Gallmann E, Giannouli M, Koch D, Peylin P, Pye S, Riviere E, San Jose R, Winiwarter W, Blank P, Kühlwein J, Pregger T, Reis S, Scholz Y, Theloke J, Vabitsch A (2003) Temporal and Spatial Resolution of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Europe. Discussion paper from a workshop in Stuttgart, Deutschland, June 2003, a contribution to the project Concerted Action CarboEurope-GHG, part of the CarboEurope Cluster
Glenk K, Colombo S (2011) Designing policies to mitigate the agricultural contribution to climate change: an assessment of soil based carbon sequestration and its ancillary effects. Clim Chang 105(1–2):43–66
Heller NE, Zavaleta ES (2009) Biodiversity management in the face of climate change: a review of 22 years of recommendations. Biol Conserv 142(1):14–32
Houghton RA, House JI, Pongratz J, van der Werf GR, DeFries RS, Hansen MC, Le Quéré C, Ramankutty N (2012) Carbon emissions from land use and land-cover change. Biogeosciences 9:5125–5142
IIED (2014) A Government Group Network for Climate Change Mainstreaming Into Development Planning. Strategy and Plan for 2014–2015. International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). June 2014
Imer D, Eugster MW, Buchmann N (2013) Temporal and spatial variations of soil CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes at three differently managed grasslands. Biogeosciences 10:5931–5945
IPCC (2006) Generic Methodologies Applicable to Multiple Land-Use Categories. Volume 4, Chapter 2. In: Eggleston HS, Buendia L, Miwa K, Ngara T, Tanabe K (eds) 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), p 2.38
IPCC (2014) In: Pachauri RK, Reisinger A (eds) Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Core writing team. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland
King JA, Bradley RI, Harrison R, Carter AD (2004) Carbon sequestration and saving potential associated with changes to the management of agricultural soils in England. Soil Use Manag 20:394–402
Kirkby MJ, Jones RJA., Irvine B, Gobin A, Govers G, Cerdan O, Van Rompaey AJJ, Le Bissonnais Y, Daroussin J, King D, Montanarella L, Grimm M, Vieillefont V, Puigdefabregas J, Boer M, Kosmas C, Yassoglou N, Tsara M, Mantel S, van Lynden GJ, Huting J (2003) Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment: The PESERA Map. Version 1 October 2003. Explanation of: Special Publication Ispra 2004 No.73 S.P.I.04.73
Klein RJT, Schipper EL, Dessai S (2003) Integrating mitigation and adaptation into climate and development policy: three research questions. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Working Paper 40
Klein RJT, Huq S, Denton F, Downing TE, Richels RG, Robinson JB, Toth FL (2007) Inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation. Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. In: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE (eds) Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 745–777
Machefert SE, Dise NB, Goulding KWT, Whitehead PG (2002) Nitrous oxide emission from a range of land uses across Europe. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 6:325–337
Medarova-Bergstrom K, Volkery A (2012) Practical Options for Climate Change Mainstreaming in the 2014–2020 EU Budget. Background document for the workshop on ‘Practical Options for Climate Change Mainstreaming in the 2014–2020 EU Budget’, 1 February 2012, Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), Brussels
OECD (2012) Evaluation of Agri-environmental Policies Selected Methodological Issues and Case Studies. OECD Publishing. ISBN: 926417933X, 9789264179332
Olander L, Wollenberg E, Tubiello F, Herold M (2013) Advancing agricultural greenhouse gas quantification. Environ Res Lett 8(1):1–7
Olivier JGJ, Janssens-Maenhout G, Muntean M and Peters JAHW (2014) Trends in global CO2 emissions; 2014 Report. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Hague and European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra
Ostle NJ, Levy PE, Evans CD, Smith P (2009) UK land use and soil carbon sequestration. Land Use Policy 26:S274–S283
Plieninger T, Schleyer C, Schaich H, Ohnesorge B, Gerdes H, Hernández-Morcillo M, Bieling C (2012) Mainstreaming ecosystem services through reformed European agricultural policies. Conserv Lett 5:281–288
Raufer R (2013) External evaluation report development account project ROA 126: integrating climate change into national sustainable development strategies and plans in Latin america and the Caribbean. Report to the United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development, New York
Renting H, Rossing WAH, Groot JCJ, Van der Ploeg JD, Laurent C, Perraud D, Stobbelaar DJ, Van Ittersum MK (2009) Exploring multifunctional agriculture. A review of conceptual approaches and prospects for an integrative transitional framework. J Environ Manag 90:S112–S123
Rosen RA, Guenther E (2014) The economics of mitigating climate change: what can we know? Technol Forecast Soc Chang. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.01.013
Rounsevell MDA, Arneth A, Brown DG, de Noblet-Ducoudré N, Ellis E, Finnigan J, Galvin K, Grigg N, Harman I, Lennox J, Magliocca N, Parker D, O’Neil B, Verburg PH, Young O (2012). Incorporating human behaviour and decision making processes in land use and climate system models. GLP Report No. 7. GLP-IPO, São José dos Campos
Schulp CJE, Naubuurs G, Verburg PH (2008) Future carbon sequestration in Europe—effects of land use change. Agric Ecosyst Environ 127(3–4):251–264
Smith KA, Conen F (2004) Impacts of land management on fluxes of trace greenhouse gases. Soil Use Manag 20:255–263
Smith P, Bustamante M, Ahammad H, Clark H, Dong H, Elsiddig EA, Haberl H, Harper R, House J, Jafari M, Masera O, Mbow C, Ravindranath NH, Rice CW, Robledo Abad C, Romanovskaya A, Sperling F, Tubiello F (2014) Agriculture, forestry and other land Use (AFOLU). In: Edenhofer O, Pichs-Madruga R, Sokona Y, Farahani E, Kadner S, Seyboth K, Adler A, Baum I, Brunner S, Eickemeier P, Kriemann B, Savolainen J, Schlömer S, von Stechow C, Zwickel T, Minx JC (eds) Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA
Tzilivakis J, Warner D, Green A, Lewis KA (2013) Adapting to climate change: assessing the vulnerability of ecosystem services in Europe in the context of rural development. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Chang 20:547–572. doi:10.1007/s11027-013-9507-6
Tzilivakis J, Green A, Lewis KA, Warner D (2014) Identifying integrated options for agricultural climate change mitigation. Int J Climate Change Strateg Manag 6(02):192–211
Van Der Ploeg JD, Renting H, Brunori G, Knickel K, Mannion J, Marsden T, De Roest K, Sevilla-Guzmán E, Ventura F (2000) Rural development: from practices and policies towards theory. Sociol Rural 40:391–408
Van Huylenbroeck G, Durand G (eds) (2003) Multifunctional agriculture: a new paradigm for European agriculture. Ashgate Publishing, Burlington
VijayaVenkataRaman S, Iniyan S, Goic R (2012) A review of climate change, mitigation and adaptation. Renew Sust Energ Rev 16:878–897
Acknowledgments
This work to develop the OSCAR software (used to undertake the analysis herein) was funded by the European Commission (DG Climate Action) (Ref. 071201/2011/609681/SER/CLIMA.A.2). The Commission’s support is gratefully acknowledged. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding body.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tzilivakis, J., Warner, D.J., Green, A. et al. Spatial and temporal variability of greenhouse gas emissions from rural development land use operations. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 22, 447–467 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-015-9680-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-015-9680-x